Even spelling is mad

Temasek Review's article,

"听写也疯狂"

Lee Kuan Yew recently called his old insistence on Chinese spelling and dictation an act of "madness," but is spelling really "mad" in nature?

An excerpt:

"

听写疯狂吗，老李为何不提一提神经心理学上对书写与记忆和学习之间的关系的研究呢？

其实，如果方向与态度正确，书写可以是引发学生对华文的兴趣的来源之一。我建议学校不要听信老李对于听写、默写也疯狂的见解，而反其道以创意的方式鼓励学生多写，比如，办一个华文涂鸦墙壁，让学生随兴在上面用华文书写；带低年级小学生到沙滩上用树枝来写字。。等等的活动。

"

(Is spelling a crazy idea? Why doesn't the old Mr Lee mention the psychiatric study of the relationship between writing and memorising, and learning?

In fact, if the approach and attitude is right, writing [Chinese characters] can be a source of inspiration for Chinese learning among school students. I urge the schools not to take in the interpretation by the old Lee that even spelling and dictation is madness. They should instead go the opposite way and encourage students to write more, using creative ways like, organising a Chinese language wall scribbling event, where students pen down Chinese expressions at will; or bringing lower primary school kids to the beach, where they would put words on the sand using tree branches, and so on.)

More here:

http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/21/听写也疯狂/

Stealing the beams and changing the pillars

From Temasek Review article 偷梁换柱 (A Chinese idiom)

Here is an extract of the first two paragraphs:

"

有个人在餐馆吃饭，看到汤碗里有一只苍蝇，便叫来侍者问："怎么汤碗里有只苍蝇？"侍者回答说："你只花5块钱就有菜有汤，你还想吃什么？"

本来真正的问题是餐馆的卫生情况 (hygiene)，结果被侍者偷梁换柱，问题变成 "你花了多少钱"。如果顾客不警觉，与侍者在"花了多少钱"上争吵，侍者便成功的转移视线，避开真正的问题。搞不好最后顾客还要赞同5块钱的确很便宜！

"

(Someone was dining at a restaurant when he saw a housefly in his bowl of soup. So he summoned the waiter and asked, "Why is there a housefly in the soup bowl?" The waited answered, "You only spent 5 dollars and you've got soup with ingredients, what more do you want?"

The real issue was actually concerning the hygiene of the restaurant, but it resulted in the waiter "stealing the beams and changing the pillars," literally switching the topic to that of "How much money have you spent?" If the customer weren't vigilant, and prowled with the waiter on the question of "how much money was spent," then the waiter would have succeeded in diverging from issue proper and effectively avoiding the real problem. It could even get as bad as the customer ending up agreeing that 5 dollars is indeed such a low price!)

Read the whole article here:

http://www.temasekreview.com/index.php?s=偷梁换柱

What kind of a Chinese is the Singaporean Chinese?

Temasek Review's recent Chinese article,

"新加坡华人是什么样的华人？"

Here is one of the paragraphs:

"首先，中外学者与传媒以讹传讹徒然添知了不少外国人在新加坡认知上的偏差。上世纪的80与90年代，李光耀先后推出儒家思想教育和提倡亚洲价值观，让外界错误的把新加坡渲染为具有儒家特色的华人社会。实质上，前者的政治意图是约束自由主义思潮在新生代中滋长，后者的政治意图则是让一党专政一人政党的政治体制合理化。"

("Firstly, the spreading of word by scholars in and outside China have caused much misunderstanding of Singapore among the foreigners. In the 1980s and 90s, Lee Kuan Yew introduced Confucious thought-inspired education, and after which, promoted Asian values. This has resulted in the rendering of Singapore, by outsiders, as a Chinese society that carries Confucian characteristics. In actual fact, the political motive of the former was to restrict the growth of the wave of liberalist ideology among the newly-sprouted young generation, while that of the latter was to justify the one-party-dictated, one-man-party political system.")

Read more here:

www.temasekreview.com/2009/11/19/新加坡华人是什么样的华人？/